M7 escort

[Skillzfire]

right so picking the game up again have around 50 million in the bank, now my question is what would be a good escort for my panther, since my panther struggles with huge fighter blobs, and im scared to send out my fighters against xenon , i need one with decent fire power so it can help out with capitals, but awesome anti fighter, i though about the griffon however it cant mount any heavy guns, im friends with all the races btw havent started my war against the paranid yet

so yeah in short whats a good anti fighter escort with some teath to help out in battle

[jlehtone]

Old men at the bar talk about Flails and Hammer heavies as a way to level everything.

[Skillzfire]

Old men at the bar talk about Flails and Hammer heavies as a way to level everything.

no im not having a M7M i like my game to be a challenge i onyl every bring out my m7m to have fun with the xenon

[BDK]

I use the Elite almost exclusively. Great overall fighter that doesn't cost too much, so losses are really not an issue.

[Skillzfire]

I use the Elite almost exclusively. Great overall fighter that doesn't cost too much, so losses are really not an issue.

i use solanos, slightly more expensive but fast and pack more shields, what i ment by escort was another M7 for anti fighter duty

[crgray]

Panther all the way for me. CFA's all round and IBL on the front. Sometimes get low on energy if fending off a swarm of fighters at the same time as attacking a capital ship, but it can outrun any capital ship to buy enough time to destroy all the fighters before going after the bigger stuff.

[Skillzfire]

Panther all the way for me. CFA's all round and IBL on the front. Sometimes get low on energy if fending off a swarm of fighters at the same time as attacking a capital ship, but it can outrun any capital ship to buy enough time to destroy all the fighters before going after the bigger stuff.

duel panthers eh, that could work, can the panther mount CFA?

[BDK]

Get a tiger then, mix things up a bit.

[crgray]

Panther all the way for me. CFA's all round and IBL on the front. Sometimes get low on energy if fending off a swarm of fighters at the same time as attacking a capital ship, but it can outrun any capital ship to buy enough time to destroy all the fighters before going after the bigger stuff.

duel panthers eh, that could work, can the panther mount CFA?

Er, no, oops, I meant FAA, whcih you can mount on all turrets except the front.

[Ripskar]

Yokohama is also pretty good vs. fighters.
You state that you are 'scared to send out your fighters', which begs the question;
"What are they for?"
S'nTz'u say; Warriors are expendable, an officer who won't risk them is not an officer.
You must train yourself to view your units as expendable, start with fighter drones, then M5s and work up till you can deploy M1s with confidence.

[Khift]

If you don't mind *modified* I would recommend installing Litcube's Bounce and possibly CODEA if you feel up to it. With those two installed (or just Bounce) you should see fighter losses at least halved if not more so because they no longer smash into the sides of everything they try to fight. Makes fielding fighters actually viable, in my opinion.

[Automatic Jack]

I like the Shrike for light carrier escorts. They have strong hulls which help them in the defender roll, especially OOS and they're relatively skinny, which helps them not bump into things when you're IS. For OOS I put CIG's and FAA's and for IS I may give them some GC's and let MARS sort out what to do with them.

[Triaxx2]

A fighter escort Shrike should go all FAA. For anti-capital an AI Shrike will have problems balancing anti-fighter vs. anti-capital. 4 GC is great, but it's not enough for anti-capital on it's own and I find AI Shrikes to have collision problems. Not helped by the spiky bits, nor by the fact that it's primary firepower is forwards.

The Panther is a mighty beast. Split your fighters into three wings. M4's for interception. Something fast like Scorpions is good. They'll run out and thin the enemy herd. Then an M3 wing for targeted attacks. Falcon Haulers, or Falcon Sentinels are my preference. The latter are hard to get en masse without the HQ, but they have massive shields and can hammer apart caps with EBC.

Close in defense should be a two layer mix. I use 4 M5's, Kestrels for preference, and 6 F Haulers/Sentinel's. Why the mix? Because you might find even FAA has trouble hitting fast movers, and M3's can with stand the accidental blows from FAA while fighting in close. Just tell the wing to protect the Panther.

That leaves two spaces for personal fighters.

I prefer a Cerberus for capital class fighter escort. Then I can arm my Panther with FAA and IBL and deal with capitals myself, while the Cerberus and it's escorts are free to scrape the tiny nuisances from my hull.

[Skillzfire]

Yokohama is also pretty good vs. fighters.
You state that you are 'scared to send out your fighters', which begs the question;
"What are they for?"
S'nTz'u say; Warriors are expendable, an officer who won't risk them is not an officer.
You must train yourself to view your units as expendable, start with fighter drones, then M5s and work up till you can deploy M1s with confidence.

well, i dont want my guys dieing im using codea so they are my ace of aces, im ok with sending them out, i just wont do it against xenon and kaack, sine they are insta hit, the losses are to great for me to bother with it, vs pirates and the like i will send out my boys to do some work

[Triaxx2]

Depending on the fighters, typically it's only Kha'ak that are a problem. Usually Xenon aren't a problem. Send in M8's to bust up capitals for you, and let the fighters mop up anything M6 or smaller.

I like to use Pikes as CODEA fighters. Heavy, quick, a nice fire spread to give a nice hit ratio. The Solano is strong, but the fire spread isn't wide enough for killing fast movers which Xenon tend to be.

[Nick Northern]

I disagree with many of the posts in this thread suggesting you arm any M7 with CFA, when you are planning to use that ship as an escort to other ships you own fighting in the same sector.

CFA is a great flak weapon, and in a ship that is fighting solo, I prefer it to FAA. However, the main advantage of CFA, it's splash damage, is going to be a problem if your ships are fighting anywhere close to one another. FAA does not have this problem, and targets one fighter at a time, and while it is slightly slower than CFA, it still has no problem taking out anything M3 and smaller. Also, don't overlook the PBE and PRG guns. Both are fantastic anti-fighter weapons that will go easy on your weapon battery.

If your personal Panther is set to kill capitals, or act as a carrier, and you want protection against fighters WITHOUT worrying about friendly fire, there are a lot of good choices. You could go with another Panther loaded with FAA and PBE's. Both will mow down fighters and M6's alike. The Cerebus full of FAA is another good choice, with either IPG or EBC in front. Shrike is another good choice with FAA all around and EBC up front.

My choice would be a Deimos loaded with FAA loaded up down, left and right. EBC in the back, and 8 PBE's up front. Fighter waves will cease to bother you. With the best shielding in the M7 class, hanger space, and the option to switch out your anti-fighter guns and load PSG's all around, hop in it, and clear whole Xenon sectors, you would get a lot of millage from this ship.

[deca.death]

right so picking the game up again have around 50 million in the bank, now my question is what would be a good escort for my panther, since my panther struggles with huge fighter blobs, and im scared to send out my fighters against xenon :D,

You're need flying lessons friend, not other ship ; )


Panther is THE M7 for fighting fighters, it has 16 flak mounts, and it can throw in several fighter wings to keep things interesting. Just launch them under orders "attack nearest enemy" command, divide them into few wings, they to overconcentrate on single target otherwise.

Use them, it's their purpose : )

[Catra]

f your personal Panther is set to kill capitals, or act as a carrier, and you want protection against fighters WITHOUT worrying about friendly fire, there are a lot of good choices.

like not being silly and blobbing around a ship with a 2KM fighter killzone, thus pretty much negating any advantage you might have had. =p

and there are plenty of fighters that can stay in that zone and still perform their escort duties ( 100 mj+ shielding )

the only real legit times to fear FF is when they're launching / docking, any other time/reason is more of the tacticians fault.

[Ripskar]

You state that you are 'scared to send out your fighters', which begs the question;
"What are they for?"
S'nTz'u say; Warriors are expendable, an officer who won't risk them is not an officer.
You must train yourself to view your units as expendable, start with fighter drones, then M5s and work up till you can deploy M1s with confidence.

well, i dont want my guys dieing im using codea so they are my ace of aces, im ok with sending them out, i just wont do it against xenon and kaack, sine they are insta hit, the losses are to great for me to bother with it, vs pirates and the like i will send out my boys to do some work

Ah, Kha'ak, been a while since I dealt with them.
Fighter drones if used in quantity can reduce the direct threat, though will tend to reduce your FPS to a crawl if not CTD.
I prefer M6 escorts for this scenario, essentially find the ship with the highest level of shielding and rapid fire weapons.

[Triaxx2]

I still say that if you're fighting Xenon, it's not a problem. Only against Kha'ak.